Optimization of Greenhouse Thermal Screens for Maximized Energy Conservation

Adnan Rasheed, Wook Ho Na, Jong Won Lee, Hyeon Tae Kim and Hyun Woo Lee
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Adnan Rasheed: Department of Agricultural Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 702-701, Korea
Wook Ho Na: Institute of Agricultural Science & Technology, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 702-701, Korea
Jong Won Lee: Department of Horticulture Environment System, Korea National College of Agriculture and Fisheries, 1515, Kongjwipatjwi-ro, Deokjin-gu, Jeonju-si, Jeollabuk-do 54874, Korea
Hyeon Tae Kim: Department of Bio-Industrial Machinery Engineering, Gyeongsang National University, (Institute of Agricultural and Life Sciences), Jinju 660-701, Korea
Hyun Woo Lee: Department of Agricultural Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 702-701, Korea

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 19, 1-20

Abstract: In this work, we proposed a Building Energy Simulation (BES) dynamic climatic model of greenhouses by utilizing Transient System Simulation (TRNSYS 18) software to study the effect of use of different thermal screen materials and control strategies of thermal screens on heat energy requirement of greenhouses. Thermal properties of the most common greenhouse thermal screens were measured and used in the BES model. Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficients of 0.84 and 0.78 showed good agreement between the computed and experimental results, thus the proposed model appears to be appropriate for performing greenhouse thermal simulations. The proposed model was used to evaluate the effects of different thermal screens including; Polyester, Luxous, Tempa, and Multi-layers, as well as to evaluate control strategies of greenhouse thermal screens, subjected to Daegu city, (latitude 35.53° N, longitude 128.36° E) South Korea winter season weather conditions. Obtained results show that the heating requirement of greenhouses with multi-layer night thermal screens was 20%, 5.4%, and 13.5%, less than the Polyester, Luxous, and Tempa screens respectively. Thus, our experiments confirm that the use of multi-layered thermal screen can reduce greenhouse heat energy requirement. Furthermore, screen-control with outside solar radiation at an optimum setpoint of 60 W·m −2 significantly influences the greenhouse’s energy conservation capacity, as it exhibited 699.5 MJ·m −2 , the least energy demand of all strategies tested. Moreover, the proposed model allows dynamic simulation of greenhouse systems and enables researchers and farmers to evaluate different screens and screen control strategies that suit their investment capabilities and local weather conditions.

Keywords: greenhouse modeling; heating demand; greenhouse microclimate; greenhouse covering (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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